Every Kiss(6)

“I’m cautious. You got here, didn’t you?”

Shane’s mouth hitches up on one side. “I’m not even going there. Do you have something you need me to carry inside, Mak?”

“Just me,” Makenna jokes.

Shane takes it as a challenge and chases her, and I lean against the car to enjoy the show. She tries, bless her little heart, but she’s nowhere near fast enough to outrun him. Hell, if I were her, I wouldn’t have even wasted the effort. If a guy like that was chasing me, I sure as hell wouldn’t be running away.

He easily carries her inside over his shoulder, and I follow hesitantly, gawking at the expanse of the great room. It’s stunningly pristine, and I’m afraid to even breathe for fear of soiling it somehow. “You’re seriously having a party in here tonight?”

Shane sets Makenna down and finally answers me after giving her a quick peck on the lips. “Not in here, no. There’s a fully furnished guest house in the back.”

“Of course there is.” I deadpan.

“And I told her about the heated pool and hot tub.” Makenna walks through to the kitchen and perches on a bar stool. “It’s a little chilly out, but we brought our suits, just in case.”

“Thought you said that you were all that needed carrying inside.”

“Well, me and my bag. Do you really think I’d be dressed like this for a party?”

Shane’s eyes skim over Makenna’s tight fuchsia t-shirt and yoga pants with one eyebrow raised. “Mmm, yeah, I see your point. You look like shit.” He’s barely able to say the words before a smile breaks his stoic expression. Makenna gasps and throws a dishtowel at him, which he catches deftly. After stalking toward her, he settles between her legs hanging off the tall stool and murmurs something into her ear. Before I even realize what’s happening, he’s walking out of the room with Makenna’s legs wrapped around his waist.

I’m happy for her. I really am. But it just makes me acutely aware of how unhappy I am for me. “Don’t worry about unloading the cars,” I call out to no one. “I’ll get it.”

After we finally get out to the guest house, it takes three hours to get everything cooked and set up for the party, not including their half hour interlude. That’s three long hours of cooking and setting up decorations that I’ll never ever get back, but on the bright side, it has given me an opportunity to hang out with Makenna. Ever since Shane has come into the picture, we see less and less of each other.

I’m tying up the last of the balloons when Mak comes in to survey my damage. “Not bad. I knew you were the right person to blow up all these balloons since you’re so full of hot air.”

“Oh, you’re full of it, too, but your mouth has been busy blowing more important things.”

“Cute. Are you jealous?” She winks, attempting to not be phased by my comment. But the deep crimson blooming in her cheeks tells me otherwise.

We both turn at the sound of a door opening upstairs, and we watch Shane exit the bathroom, still wet from a shower and only wearing a loose pair of mesh shorts. He walks along the loft railing toward one of the bedrooms, rubbing his wild hair with a towel, and disappears.

My head whips back to Makenna. “Yes. Very.”

Following me into the kitchen, her face falls a little, concern marring her usual brightness. “You still haven’t told me about what happened with Tanner last night.”

“What’s to tell? I was honest with him and told him that I didn’t trust him. Half the time when he said he was coming over, he never showed up, and he wouldn’t ever call me back. I told him that rumors were circulating that he’d been spotted with Maebree Fuller on more than one occasion. He denied that, of course. So, to sum it up, I told him that we’d be better off as friends, like we were before.”

And that’s the truth. Tanner and I have been friends for a long time, but he became someone completely different when we started dating a few months ago. Makenna had just started seeing Shane, so I was bored one night and asked Tanner to come over and watch a movie with me, as we had done many times before. That night was different, though. Before we made it halfway through the movie, he was kissing me, and well . . . he was a damn good kisser, so I let him. I kissed him back. I never saw the change coming, but boy did it.

He was weird around me for nearly a week, but I finally made him talk to me about it. He finally admitted that he’d been crushing on me for a while but was afraid to change the dynamics of our friendship. Once we got the awkwardness out of the way and he opened up to me, I actually believed that we had a shot at something real. Especially when he told me that he didn’t mean to kiss me that night. I was almost a little hurt by that until he pulled me close and said, “But I definitely mean to kiss you right now.”